An example of a conventional automated chemical analyzer (sample analyzer) provided with a storage section for storing cuvettes (containers for preparing measurement samples) is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,412.
The automated chemical analyzer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,412 is provided with a vessel hopper for storing cuvettes, a rotatable elevator chain on the perimeter of which are mounted a plurality of protruding scoopers disposed at equal intervals, escrow guide, and first ram and second ram for feeding cuvettes to the escrow guide. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,412, cuvettes positioned at the bottom among the plurality of cuvettes stored in the vessel hopper are held one by one by the scoopers oriented in a predetermined direction. The cuvettes held by the scoopers are conveyed upward from the bottom of the vessel hopper by the elevator chain. Then, the cuvettes conveyed upward are dropped into the escrow guide from above by the first ram or second ram. Next, the cuvettes are transported one by one from the escrow guide.
High speed automated analyzers have been developed in recent years. For this reason, there is increasing desire for the capability of storing as many cuvettes as possible in the vessel hopper in order to reduce the number of times an operator must resupply cuvettes when continuously measuring a large number of samples.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,412, however, cuvettes accommodated at the bottom of the vessel hopper are unregulatedly disoriented and sequentially taken out and moved upwardly by the many scoopers provided on the elevator chain, which face in a predetermined direction. In the art disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,412, when the amount of cuvettes stored in the vessel hopper is increased in response to the previously mentioned demand for higher capacity, the unregulatedly disoriented cuvettes accommodated at the bottom of the vessel can not move freely. For this reason, it becomes difficult for each scooper to reliably take out a cuvette. Thus, a problem arises in the art disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,790,412 in that it is difficult to conduct the stable feeding of cuvettes.